I have no idea what the green shape is or where it came from, but there is a real calmness to it as it watches over the other shapes play. Many of these shapes start as drawings and eventually jump into the oil paintings. I remember that red line shell-like shape in the left-hand corner from a drawing I did on one of the silkscreens from Berlin. The dark sculpture shape in the top right-hand corner was in a series of ink drawings that I later tore up. It conjures up a ceramic, almost desert landscape quality that I like.
When you stretch a large canvas, there is usually a strip of fabric left, which is perfect for making these small 20x30 cm stretchers. I have them lying around the studio, and they are often the first place I might try a new shape in oil paint. That abstract bird in the top left flew in from one of those tiny canvases.
That’s about as much conscious input as I can trace in this piece. Most of it is unknown to me, and the process of painting it is enough, but if I had to hazard a guess, it is a work about nature, a landscape painting.
The painting can be viewed at John Martin Gallery, London.
A Landscape You Owned | oil on canvas | 150 x 120 cm | 2022
I found this image in a German art magazine and was captured by the movement in it. The narrative is about a saint on a journey. Sitting here in the studio, a year into the pandemic, I realise that the idea of travelling has become so alien to me. Ironic, considering that Christopher is the patron saint of travellers. I made a promise to myself to go and find this Patinir painting in the flesh when all this Covid is over. What’s happening in the painting is just as interesting. Patinir’s treatment of the …